Odette (film)

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Odette
File:Odette FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed by Herbert Wilcox
Produced by Herbert Wilcox
Anna Neagle
Screenplay by Warren Chetham-Strode
Based on Odette: The Story of a British Agent
by Jerrard Tickell
Starring Anna Neagle
Trevor Howard
Marius Goring
Bernard Lee
Peter Ustinov
Music by Anthony Collins
Cinematography Mutz Greenbaum (credited as Max Greene)
Edited by Bill Lewthwaite
Production
company
Wilcox-Neagle Productions
Distributed by British Lion Films (UK)
Lopert Pictures (US)
Release dates
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  • 6 June 1950 (1950-06-06) (UK)
  • 27 March 1951 (1951-03-27) (US)
Running time
124 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Box office ₤269,463 (UK)[1]

Odette is a 1950 film British war film based on the true story of Special Operations Executive French-born agent Odette Sansom, who was captured by the Germans in 1943, condemned to death and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp to be executed. However, against all odds she survived the war and testified against the prison guards at the Hamburg Ravensbrück Trials. She was awarded the George Cross in 1946; the first woman ever to receive the award, and the only woman who has been awarded it while still alive.

Anna Neagle plays Odette Sansom and Trevor Howard plays Peter Churchill, the British agent she mainly worked with and married after the war. Peter Ustinov plays their radio operator. Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, who was head of the SOE's French Section, played himself in the film, as did Paddy Sproule, another FANY female SOE agent.[2]

The film was directed by Herbert Wilcox, and the screenplay by Warren Chetham-Strode was based on Jerrard Tickell's non-fiction book Odette: The Story of a British Agent. It was jointly produced by the husband and wife team Herbert Wilcox and Anna Neagle.

Both Odette Sansom (by then Odette Churchill) and Peter Churchill served as technical advisors during the filming, and the film ends with a written message from Odette herself.

Main cast

Reception

The film was the fourth most popular movie at the British box office in 1950.[3]

Notes

  1. Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p492
  2. Paddy Sproule obituary
  3. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links


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